A FORMER director of Wagga Wagga Art Gallery has been announced as the new CEO and artistic director for Megalo Print Studio in Kingston, replacing outgoing director Ingeborg Hansen. 

Stephen Payne was described by the chair of Megalo’s Board of Management, Erica Seccombe, as “extremely knowledgeable about contemporary art practices”, adding that his special passion for printmaking would bring to the role a wealth of leadership experience and an array of skills and capacities required for the position.

Payne was director of Wagga Wagga Art Gallery from 2012-2018 and he was recently appointed to develop the Wagga Wagga City Council Cultural Plan for 2020-2030.

From 2019 to 2020, he served as acting general manager at the Print Council of Australia and he now leaves Warrnambool Art Gallery where, as the digitisation project curator, he oversaw the cataloguing of more than 5,000 works on paper.

Seccombe said Payne had a long-running awareness of the activities and achievements of the Megalo Print Studio. She believed this positioned him well to lead Megalo into the next chapter of its 41-year history, as the organisation made plans to move to its first permanent, custom-designed studios in the new Kingston Arts Precinct.

As for Payne, he says this position is his idea of “a dream job”.